Carney: Washington ‘did not deliver’ in 2013

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in an interview broadcast Sunday that President Obama in 2014 will “bypass Congress where necessary,” following a year in which Washington “did not deliver for the American people.”

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“I think what we saw last year in 2013 was a Washington that did not deliver for the American people,” Carney said on ABC’s “This Week.” And the president sees this as a year of action to work with Congress where he can and to bypass Congress where necessary, to lift folks who want to come up into the middle class.”

Carney noted priorities listed in Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address, including an increased minimum wage, immigration reform and background checks for gun purchases, which did not happen, were all “calls for action that involved Congress.”

“The president is very disappointed that the Senate failed to heed the will of the vast majority of the American people when it came to expanding background checks. On immigration reform, we're actually optimistic that 2014 will be the year that Congress delivers to the president's desk a bipartisanship, comprehensive immigration reform bill that meets the principles he laid out and that he can sign into law,” he said.

Carney rejected the notion Republicans could seize the Senate by running on the president’s signature healthcare reform law.

“I just disagree that Republicans are going to have a winning issue on this, if they decide to run on it, because they've got to explain what repeal means,” Carney said

Carney also said he disagrees with a statement by the executive editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson, who said the Obama White House is "the most secretive White House I have ever been involved in covering."

“I know from experience that it's wrong. And, you know, we provide an extraordinary amount of information and access to reporters," he said. "And we work every day … to provide more.”